It was a difficult day on The Michelangelo Signorile Show yesterday, as Mike spoke with several angry callers who are ready to vote for John McCain before casting a ballot for Barack Obama. In the clip below, the caller cites a few reasons I’ve seen out there, including: 1) we know McCain, we don’t know Obama; 2) There’s just something about him (Obama) I don’t like. Watch it:
This whole call needs to be transcribed and circulated because we seriously need to have a discussion about the underlying issues here that are hitting on the third rail. Mike challenges the caller to explain these positions, given the huge political gulf between McCain and Obama on nearly every issue. The caller ends up admitting that his decision to vote for McCain is not based on logic.
Caller: My arguments aren’t logical…this is what my gut is telling me; I don’t consider myself a racist or bigoted…there’s just something about the man I don’t like and I’m not going to vote for him.”
Mike: It’s funny that you say your gut is telling you this and then you go on to say that you’re not a racist, funny how that works, right? Because maybe your gut is telling you something that you’re not wanting to admit…but listen, but you should be voting based on logic, based on rationality. What Republicans want is for you to vote on emotion. And you are a perfect example of how they get votes from people who are voting against their own self interest.
Obama’s and Clinton’s positions are far closer than Obama vs. McCain—it doesn’t make any sense to vote for McCain. For some, not all - there really is a deep-seated fear out there about being led by a black man, so much so that they’d vote for McCain. They think electing Barack Obama is somehow going to erase white privilege— as if it was possible—and then exact some sort of revenge for past wrongs perpetrated on minorities. Jesse and I blogged about this jokingly the other day, but this aspect of the rejection of Obama is not being honestly articulated—the caller in this case went out of his way to bring up how he’s not racist—when race had not come up in the conversation at all up until that point.
Another caller provided a comment on Mike’s blog. Read it below the fold.